PFRDA chairman Verma said the government aims to cover 80 lakh under the Swavalamban pension scheme by FY15

The Indian government is targeting about 80 lakh subscribers under its Swavalambam pension scheme, a part of the ambitious financial inclusion Jan-Dhan Yojana, by the end of this fiscal year.

RV Verma, chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), said, "It is already part and parcel of the Jan-Dhan scheme. The Swavalamban product is already there. We have right now about 30 lakh subscribers under the Swavalamban scheme. We are targeting 80 lakh subscribers by the end of this fiscal year".

He said the pension scheme is specially targeted towards the lowest segment of the population.

Verma said the banking industry is working in close co-ordination with the PFRDA and the Ministry of Finance to cover more people under the scheme.

Earlier during his address on the 'Skoch : Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' summit, Verma said: "The mission mode form of financial inclusion is to be a game changer. It needs to be given a mission mode format or else it will not work."

He said the products under Jan-Dhan scheme should be available to a larger section and should be economically viable.

There is also a need for the deepening of the financial sector so that the benefits reaches a larger section of the society, he said.

"Banks have to really go down. Products should be affordable and it should be provided to them at the least cost," Verma said.

However, he said, there are few challenges in this regard.

"It is a financial sector intervention so it should be reform oriented and should be commercially viable, socially acceptable and sustainable. We are incentivising the beneficiaries and trying to generate more wealth," he said.

He said the last-mile connectivity could be a reality with this new form of financial inclusion and there is no alternative but to have robust and sturdy Information Technology (IT) enabled process to make it a success.

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It was stated in the UGC circular that Hindi be taught as a primary language along with English in undergraduate courses, besides following it in Law and Commerce streams also

Maintaining its opposition to “imposition” of Hindi in the state, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday directed two universities not to implement the UGC circular and said the decision taken by the previous UPA government would not be binding on it.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said the move, amounting to “imposing Hindi”, had been initiated during the previous government.

She said the two institutions – Anna University and Alagappa University – had received the circular on 16 September 2014 where it was stated that Hindi be taught as a primary language along with English in undergraduate courses, besides following it in Law and Commerce streams also.

She said this decision had been taken at the meeting of the Kendriya Hindi Samiti (National Hindi Council) on 28 July 2011 under then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Official Languages Act, 1963, made it clear that Hindi should not be imposed on states not speaking the language, while the communication between Centre and such states, classified as ‘Zone C’, should only be in English, as mandates later.

“Therefore, the UGC circular will not at all apply to universities in Tamil Nadu,” she said.

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COMMENTS

sitaram mani

2 years ago

The UGC is stupid, the TN Govt is more stupid. The UGC should have made it optional or the TN Govt should insist Hindi as optional. The DMK Govt Rejected HINDI and the CM Family members learnt Hindi. The people of TN have been made immobile and have to stick to their state.